Does science teach moral laws?

[notto]

IT's funny you know. I was reading the manual for assembling the new closet I got from Ikea the other day. In it it only told me how to assemble the closet. No other kind of guidance. So I went over to my flatmate and killed her by drilling into her brain with my cordless drill that I'd been using.

D'oh!

Turns out, that was a bad thing to do. Now it looks like I might be in a bit of trouble with the police.

But this shouldn't be too much of a problem. The police turned up just after I'd finished installing a new motherboard in my computer. I'd been following the instructions in the manual. Again, no other kind of instructions in that manual. The police burst in so I picked up the screwdriver I'd been using (with a magnetic head, no less) and I proceeded to brutally stab to death 3 officers.

So all in all a bit of a strange day.

But the point to this is this: I wouldn't be in this horrendous mess if only the manual for my closet and my new motherboard had just given me some moral guidance.

Neither of them told me not to kill. One only focused on a closet, the other had something to do with computers. WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY?

Was it a Stanley screwdriver or a Craftsman. I just want to make sure I'm cursing the right tool maker for the evil devices they created.

 

[h2whoa]

Was it a Stanley screwdriver or a Craftsman. I just want to make sure I'm cursing the right tool maker for the evil devices they created.

Stanley all the way...

 

[AnEmpiricalAgnostic]

In all this discussion about not providing moral guidance in the science classroom we’ve neglected one crucial facet. We can not just let “good” moral be taught alone. To be fair we must teach the controversy. We must teach children the benefits of “bad” morals and let them choose for themselves. I’m sure that they can see through the instant gratification that “bad” morals may bring them and choose the “right” path for themselves. I mean, they wouldn’t just choose the one that makes them feel better right? Surely they wouldn’t adopt one view just because it’s easier would they? If the “good” morals that the church teaches are True™ then what are they afraid of? Teach the controversy!

 

[RealityCheck]

There are consequences when you break a law. Just how far do you think you can fall without getting hurt? 10, 20, 30 feet? The law of gravity may not "break" your fall, but the ground sure will and it may break you also.

Moral laws are the same as physical laws in that there are consequences. Yet science does not want the moral laws taught to our young people.

I broke a few physical laws just the other day. First I broke the law of gravity, and floated lazily in the air. This went unnoticed for a long time, so I figured I'd break a few more laws. First I made two positively charged particles attract each other, and then I induced an electric current to create a magentic field in the wrong direction. I made Argon react with Xenon. I forced a vat of water to freeze at standard temperature and pressure. And in a real act of lawlessness, I made the net entropy of the universe decrease.

By then, someone had called 911. The Physical Law police arrested me and tossed me in jail. Silly police. I just altered the molecular structure of the walls and floated home.

 

[JGG]

I broke the law of motion recently. Someone pushed me, and I didn't push back equally. Am I going to hell for breaking one of God's laws?

I just want to post here so I can keep up with this one. Its so silly!

 

[I_Love_Cheese]

I broke the law of motion recently. Someone pushed me, and I didn't push back equally. Am I going to hell for breaking one of God's laws?

I just want to post here so I can keep up with this one. Its so silly!

Nah, that was one of Newton's Laws, they repealed it about the time we had the war to end all wars.

 

[JGG]

Nah, that was one of Newton's Laws, they repealed it about the time we had the war to end all wars.

So I don't have to repent the sin of...bad...motion...?

 

[crazyfingers]

I am not talking about teaching them more, only teaching them as much. They need to teach the moral and the physical laws.

I suggest that you might get more traction with your question if you did not single out scientists but include all other professions.

How about lawyers? How about politicians? How about capitalists? How about teachers?

And then there is the question about what types of scientists? Do meteorologists need to spend equal time on some spoon fed morality of your choosing as on how to understand climate data? How about physicists who study magnetism? How about the geologists who study plate tectonics? Or how about cosmologists who study the red shift of distant galaxies?